éicen

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Old Irish

Alternative forms

écen

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *ankenā (“force, necessity”), whence also Welsh angen, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂neḱ- (“to reach, attain”). Cognate with Ancient Greek ἀνάγκη (anánkē, “force, necessity”), Old Armenian անքատ (ankʻat, “necessitous”), Tocharian B eṅk- (“take control of”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key):

Noun

éicen f (genitive éicne)

force, necessity
- c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 14^d3
  cid écen aisndís do neuch as doruid co léir, ní sechmalfaider cuimre and dano
  though it is necessary (lit. “though it is a necessity”) to explain carefully anything that is difficult, however brevity will not be passed by
- c. 845, St Gall Glosses on Priscian, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1975, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. II, pp. 49–224, Sg. 207^b11
  Cit comṡuidigthi la Grécu ní écen dúnni beta comṡuidigthi linn.
  Although they are compounds in Greek (lit. “with the Greeks”), it is not necessary (lit. “it is not a necessity”) for us that they be compounds in our language (lit. “with us”).

Declension

Feminine ā-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	éicen^L	éicin^L	éicnea^H
Vocative	éicen^L	éicin^L	éicnea^H
Accusative	éicin^N	éicin^L	éicnea^H
Genitive	éicne^H	éicen^L	éicen^N
Dative	éicin^L	éicnib	éicnib
Initial mutations of a following adjective: ^H = triggers aspiration ^L = triggers lenition ^N = triggers nasalization

Descendants

Irish: éigean, éigin
Manx: egin
Scottish Gaelic: èiginn

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
éicen (pronounced with /h/ in h-prothesis environments)	unchanged	n-éicen
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “éicen”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

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